US Partner Community resources to help you stay informed

It’s an exciting time to be a Microsoft partner, with new opportunities around Windows 10, Office 2016, Machine Learning and Advanced Analytics, and more. Microsoft offers members of our partner program, the Microsoft Partner Network, benefits, training, and resources that can help you prepare for current and future market opportunities, connect with customers and prospects, and differentiate your business.

In this online guide, I’ll share what I think are the best links where you can stay informed and engage with the US Partner Community and Microsoft. Choose your favorite way (or ways) to get the news and information relevant to your business and areas of interest. In addition to this post, there is a downloadable slide available that lists these resources.

Read the US partner news online and review the Hot Sheet training schedule

The US Partner Team works with other Microsoft US teams, with the product teams, and with our worldwide counterparts to identify, curate, and publish partner-related news and information. These two online publications are regularly updated to provide you with timely and actionable content:

US partner news online – this weekly post brings together product and program announcements, new resources, and training opportunities, all with a partner focus. Subscribe to the US Partner Community blog to see these posts in your email inbox.

Hot Sheet training schedule – this monthly post is updated frequently as we learn about new courses, webcasts, office hours, and community calls for partners. You’ll get a 6- to 8-week outlook, so you can plan ahead. Subscribe to the US Partner Learning blog to see these posts in your email inbox.

We provide timely updates about US partner-relevant announcements, news, and information throughout the business day on our Twitter feeds and Facebook page. We appreciate your likes, shares, and comments.

Participate in the US partner technical communities for Azure, Office 365, and Windows

We’ve created activities and technically focused content for partners with practices around Azure, Office 365, and Windows. These communities are led by National Partner Technology Strategists from the Microsoft US Partner Team—subject-matter experts on how you can start, build, and extend your practice to include these products. Community activities include blog posts, community calls, and Yammer group discussions.

With more than 8,000 Microsoft and partner members, our Yammer network offers all US partners an opportunity to get just-in-time news and current information and resources. You are encouraged to like, comment, and ask questions in the community—both Microsoft and partner subject-matter experts are happy to share their knowledge.

Request an invitation to join the Microsoft US Partner Community Yammer network: aka.ms/uspyammer

You must join this network with an email address from a corporate domain—public domains like Hotmail, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, Live.com, etc. will not be accepted

Email addresses must be for individuals, not for entities or teams (e.g., “salesteam@partnername.com” will not be approved

We check for invitation requests to our community several times a day, and typically send invitations (by email) within a couple of hours on weekdays

Accept the invitation by clicking through the link provided in the email, and you will be a member of our US Partner Community Yammer network

Step 3 Join and participate in groups

Find, join, and participate in groups that match your areas of expertise and interest. Here are two ways to do this:

While on the US Partner Community Yammer site, click the word “GROUPS” on the left side of your browser window. You’ll see a pop-up with Suggested Groups listed. You can click Join next to those, and you can find more groups by clicking View More Groups at the bottom of the pop-up window, then select the “All Groups” tab.

While on the US Partner Community Yammer site, use the search bar on the left side of your browser windows. As you begin typing, you’ll see results broken out by groups, people, files, and more.

You can join any public group by simply selecting Join. For private groups, you will need to be admitted by that group’s administrator, at their discretion.

Suggested groups

Here are some of the most popular public groups on our Yammer network. After you have joined our Yammer network (completing Step 2 above), you can join these groups. You can search for these groups within Yammer, or click the group name below for a link directly to the group. Then, click Join.